“The Eisteddfod, where the bards look like the Ku Klux Klan in white wellies, is an ancient ceremony dating all the way back to 1880. Ye Warriors of Gwynedd they are not.”

“Though I was born in Caerphilly and have, as it happens, not a drop of non-Welsh haemoglobin in my veins, I detest the way Wales has been turned into a foreign country, with a Welsh language radio station, television channel, and dual-language road signs”

.”I abhor the appalling and moribund monkey language myself, which hasn’t had a new noun since the Middle Ages — hence pwdin is pudding, snwcer is snooker, tacsi is taxi and bocsio is boxing.
As Kingsley Amis, who lived in Swansea for many years, once said, can it be true that there are Welshmen who are genuinely puzzled by the letter x?”

” But the trouble with the Welsh language is that it isn’t a quaint custom revived or the relic of cultural niceties — it is foisted on people for political reasons.”

” It doesn’t end well for the MP. A chorus of Welsh personalities has rounded on Jonathan Edwards, the member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, after he reported a book reviewer to the police, and wrote to the Home Secretary to complain the review was “sick” and “racist”.”

We do not not want an outdated irrelevant language foisted on us for political reasons. We must have a debate and a referendum on the Welsh language being foisted on us. The money wasted on the Welsh language could be used for our health and education budget.

The people in Wales are becoming sheep afraid to speak out and are being shafted by a minority of Welsh speaking nationalists, who’s whole ethos is a hatred of all things English.

We really do need freedom in the Welsh press.

We need more people like Roger Lewis and Julian Ruck who are not afraid to speak out.

Tony Cyprus sounds like the Welsh Taliban:…… “You are the tyrants and have blasphemed against the Druids and should be stoned to death”.

I can’t stop imagining Tony wearing a Welsh hat with a beard and an RPG slung over his shoulder sitting in a cave near Dan yr Ogof with his wife wearing a Burka waiting to move on Cardiff after Welsh independence.

Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards is one of a small group at Westminster who think that Government plans to let voters get rid of MPs who break the rules don’t go far enough. He’s backing a rival bill to the legislation promised in the Queen’s Speech.
Mr Edwards agrees that voters should have the right to petition for a by-election but disagrees with ministers who want to restrict that right to cases where an MP’s behaviour has already been condemned by a committee at Westminster.

With all these druids and dragons, Wales is becoming a mythical mysterious medieval theme park….really surreal. I think Wales is a wonderful study on how a social engineering project went completely out of control.

Indeed, it’s always good to debate things like this, in partiuclar in times of cuts in the public sector. But unsubstantiated claims, misinterpretation of facts, reading between the lines only when it suits your argument, prejudice … these do not make for good debate. ‘Debate’ like this and you will continue to anger and to divide, politicising the matter further, which is both unnecessary and unconstructive. Is this really the contribution you want to make? What for?

Firstly, may I point out that I couldn’t care less who I offend or anger – I am entitled to my opinion and that’s that.

As for the Welsh language , it is this that divides not me.

Unsubstantiated claims, misrepresentations and prejudice??? You’re right about one thing: I made some mistakes in my column. S4C has cost taxpayers £2.2bn since 1982, NOT 1bn as stated – their own figure by the way in response to my question to their press office. Also S4C’s viewing figures are one sixth of 1% NOT 1% – I got this wrong too.

£16.2m for Radio Cymru of licence fee payers’ money and £1.2m for Radio Cornwall yet both have the same audience numbers,again the BBC’s own press office figures.

All the above can be fully ‘substantiated’ by a quick bit of Googling.

It was you that wanted to look at things impartially (you said so yourself in your article). I was merely pointing out that you were not looking at things impartially. You don’t have to accept what I say, of course. But I’m not sure I deserve quite that level of aggression.

Thanks for clarifying some of your sources. It’s usual when you’re looking at things imparitally for the author to do that themselves.

Elen, PhD

P.S. I don’t want to read about the Welsh language having a real pasting. I want to read things by people who look at things impartially. As do you. I think.

Only today one of my editors had a phone call from a North Walian Welsh language maniac demanding to know my address, so that he and his little friends could come and burn my house down (not for the first time!),thus my minus zero tolerance with extreme Welsh speakers.

I make no apology for any aggression you presume to be apparent in my last response.

Oh and its bad form to put your academic letters after your name in a personal communication; you are quite obviously considerably younger than my good self. For the record, I have a damn sight more than a PhD under my belt both academically and professionally(obtained in the days when exams were exams) but unlike you, I have never felt inferiority complexed or insecure enough to shout about it.

Julian Ruck

PS And NO, it is NOT usual for columnists and journalists to shove up their sources with every piece they write. Welcome to the real world, I’d stick to Welsh academia if I were you!

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I am the author of four novels to date: Ragged Cliffs, Inheritance Lost and An Equal Judge make up the Treharne Saga, and my latest novel, The Bent Brief, tells the story of a lawyer who accidentally kills his wife when he finds her in bed with another woman.
My upcoming novels, The Silver Songsters and All Gas No Oil are to be published over the next 18 months.
Follow the link to my website at the top of this page to read the first chapters of all 6 novels.

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